(j) A "source specialist" (SS) in reference to this supplement is that individual charged with the responsibility for maintaining and developing center source files on potential contractors and for interviewing prospective contractors in relation to their performance capability.

51-104 Air Force small-business procedures-General

(d) The ARDC Small-Business Guidance Council established March 12, 1956, consists of staff members of the Directorate of Procurement, Directorate of Development, Directorate of System Plans, and the Plans and Programing Office of Headquarters ARDC. It functions as a coordinating body and assists the Director of Procurement in developing the ARDC small-business program in accordance with Air Force policy and reviewing the effectiveness of the program within ARDC. The executive for small business for Headquarters, ARDC, Directorate of Procurement, is designated as chairman of this council. 51-105.3 Additional procedures for ARDC

At Headquarters, ARDC, and ARDC center directorates of procurement to which small-business specialists are assigned the procedures in this paragraph, in addition to those in paragraph 51-10.1 will be followed on all individual local purchase and research and development procurement actions which are expected to involve an expenditure of $10,000 or more. The procedure set forth in this paragraph is also applicable to individual purchase requests (PR's) of less than $10,000 which are susceptible to combination and which would aggregate the amount of $10,000 or more.

(a) The ARDC Center UR-MIPR Control Office (off the Support Services Branch) will furnish a copy of all PR's to the SBS simultaneously with the release of the PR's to the CS.

(b) The SBS, CS and SS will review the proposed procurement and determine whether it is one for which there are known technically capable or potentially capable small-business sources to be solicited. Sources recommended by the mining from the source file the known potential sources, including small business, for consideration in connection with proposed procurements. The SBS, CS, and source specialist will collaborate as a team to insure that consideration is given to small-business interests and, will determine the names of technically capable small-business sources to be solicited. Sources recommended by the Small Business Administration will be considered on the same basis as other qualified small business concerns as potential sources. Disagreements among the members of the source selection team will be resolved by the Director of Procurement at ARDC centers or the Director of Procurement, Headquarters, ARDC. on Headquarters purchasing and contracting actions.

(c) The SBS will accomplish AFPI Form 46, Small Business Coordination Sheet, as applicable to each specific procurement, reflecting agreements reached with the CS. Three copies of the form will be prepared and signed by the SBS and CS; the original will be furnished to the CS for inclusion in the official contract file; the second copy will be retained by the SBS; and the third copy will be retained by SS.

(d) Synopsis of proposed procurements will be made in accordance with ASPR 2-206.1 and 2-206.3.

(e) For those procurements on which a determination is made that a small business potential source exists, the CS will:

(1) Furnish a copy of the RFP or IFB and any amendments subsequently issued to the SBS.

(2) Furnish the SBS for review, prior to making award, a copy of the abstract of bids or proposals including any technical evaluation that has influenced the procurement. The abstract will be in sufficient detail to enable the SBS to determine:

(A) The PR number or numbers involved in the procurement.

(B) Whether the procurement was handled according to AFPI Form 46. (C) The basis for CS's recommendation, if award is made to other than small business.

(D) The number of large potential sources and number of small potential sources solicited.

(E) The name and location of each bidder and whether the bidder is large or small business, and the recommendation of the CS for award. (f) The SBS will make an appropriate notation on the AFPI Form 46 for the information of the review committee respecting his concurrence in consideration of small-business potential. If the SBS is not satisfied that proper con

sideration has been given to small-business concerns in the handling of the procurement, he will notify the CS immediately. In the event of disagreement between the CS and the SBS, the case will be referred to the director of procurement at ARDC centers or the Director of Procurement, Headquarters, ARDC, on Headquarters purchasing and contracting actions.

(g) The SBS will review each DD Form 350, Individual Procurement Action Report, before it is submitted to Headquarters, AMC, and will advise the CS when it appears that the small-business information contained in the report is incorrect.

(h) The SBS at each ARDC center directorate of procurement will submit AFPI Form 46A (formerly form 261) Small Business Monthly Activity Report, as of the end of each month, three copies of which will be submitted to Headquarters, ARDC, attention: RDSKPA, not later than the 10th calendar date of the following month.

(i) The SBS, CS, and SS will utilize the services of SBS's assigned to designated development field offices to the maximum extent in developing and selecting potential small-business sources.

Mr. EIDEN. This program that we have written and is now approved has been presented to the directors of procurement of each of the 10 Research and Development Command centers.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. How many are there?

Mr. EIDEN. We have 10, sir, where the procurement activities are carried out by directors of procurement.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I think the committee is more interested in what has been accomplished, rather than just the formulating of a program and the approach that is going to be made.

Mr. EIDEN. Well, sir, if I may continue; we now have small-business specialists designated at each one of the procurement activities who are on the staff of the directors of procurement of each one of these centers. We are also planning on having a small-business specialist at three of the Air Force development field offices-the office in New York, a new one in Chicago, one in Los Angeles.

These small-business specialists will be comparable to the smallbusiness specialists that the Air Materiel Command has in its district offices. We will have two different types, just like AMC has.

The small-business specialist at the procurement activities will screen each procurement with a view toward determining whether or not the source files at these particular activities has small-business potentials that can be put on a particular procurement and thus give capable small concerns an opportunity to submit a proposal. That is the way the program generally operates.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. How long has this been in operation?

Mr. EIDEN. This has been in operation, sir, since the first of January. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Of this year?

Mr. EIDEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. You haven't had very much of an opportunity to appraise its effectiveness.

Mr. EIDEN. No, sir; we have not. We well that after the porgram is in operation for about 1 year that we will have some very meaningful statistics that this particular program will bring about in the way of reports.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. This is one of the fields, may I say, in which small business hasn't been able to get its rightful opportunity. Maybe we are wrong, but up to this present point at least small business has had a very, very small percentage of the research and development programs,

Mr. EIDEN. According to present statistics, this is true, sir; but we believe our formalized program will bring about more meaningful figures.

Mr. WEDDELL. Mr. Riehlman, I want to put this remark in: You asked for specific accomplishments. We can't speak yet of a great number of them, but here is a particular instance where this new program in effect is paying off: A small-business concern in the State of Florida which is in the research and development field traveled hither and yon about the country trying to find out how it could get its capabilities known to various research and development agencies of the Government. As soon as we heard of the situation we referred them to Mr. Eiden at Baltimore, where he spent a long time with them and then took them to the technical people, where they discussed the matter to see what they could do. Within 2 weeks after that, an inspector from Patrick Air Force Base called on this plant to look it over personally and to determine where it could fit into the program. We had a letter from that concern recently showing that they have had some 4 or 5 requests to make proposals because they were found to be very competent and capable in a certain area of research and development that was being considered. I believe they have received a contract since then.

I would like to say that that is a general situation. It will be a general situation, I am sure, as rapidly as they can get this work going. Mr. RIEHLMAN. I know of an instance, Mr. Chairman that I discovered last year in Los Angeles, Calif., in which 2 or 3 engineers had secured a facility of their own and were in the field of research and development; 2 or 3 of them had been employed by Douglas and were struggling tremendously to find an opportunity to do something for the Government. They were willing to give their services and I know they were competent engineers. They had a small facility and it was a real struggle and real problem for them to get a start on it. Those are the type of ambitious young people who want to get into that field, and our committee and the Small Business Administration, I am sure, are interested in trying to sponsor and help them so that they can get started. I am hopeful that the program that you outlined, particularly for the Air Force, will be effective and helpful in that respect.

Mr. SHARP. Mr. Riehlman, I might add here this has concerned me a great deal, not only from the standpoint of giving small business its proper share, but we in the Air Force feel very strongly that we have enormous potentials for development of equipment and new ideas in these small concerns that are not being properly tapped. I mean we feel it not only would be helpful to the small-business concerns, but it would also be helpful to the defense effort itself.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Isn't it true that many times it is just one individual or engineer or scientist that really has the key to one of our great developments? Sometimes they are isolated from the big manufacturers and so forth, and if we can tap that research, that might be of benefit to our weapons and development field.

Mr. SHARP. I heartily agree and that is one of the reasons why I have taken such a personal interest in this particular activity. I am sure it can have far-reaching effect.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I know we will watch with a great deal of interest as to what accomplishments will be made, particularly with this new

approach that you have made to this research and development program.

Mr. EIDEN. I would like to say, Mr. Riehlman, that since the program has been in operation since September of 1956, I have talked to at least 50 small-business men who have personally come into my office and have been briefed as to just exactly how we intend to carry on the program, and what procedures we have established. We have received letters from these individuals who have followed through. They haven't told us that they have received a contract, but they have been very pleased to have had the information, to learn how to get into this research and development work.

We have had phone calls, as well as letters, from these individuals and we have sent out about 250 brochures and letters outlining the procedure to people who have written inquiring as to how to do work with the Air Force in research and development.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Mr. Weddell, in this position that you hold, you have in the field, I think, 160 small-business specialists? Mr. WEDDELL. We have, Mr. Riehlman, 42.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Where did I get the figure of 160?

Mr. WEDDELL. I think I can explain that. We have 42 full-time small-business specialists in the Air Force. In addition to that, we have some nine part-time small-business specialists where it is an additional assigned duty. That is where there isn't enough work of this sort in that particular installation. Those are not our major purchasing activities.

Now the other figure that you have, that higher number, is due to this recently scheduled plan of having in each of the bases, some 150 bases, having 1 particular individual there known as the small-business specialist so that he would provide a focal point for a small-business man who wants to sell his product for use on the base.

For example, here at Bolling Field there will be, or there is now, a small-business specialist. He is not a full-time man at all.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Will they be full-time people eventually or are they just part-time?

Mr. WEDDELL. No; there isn't enough procurement there to justify a full-time man.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Where do you secure these men? What is their other activity, other than this? Are they attached to the Air Force? Mr. WEDDELL. Oh, yes; they are Air Force.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. And they are just assigned on a part-time basis? Mr. WEDDELL. When I speak of a part-time basis, these men have other duties in the Air Force and we add this one. But we want to have this made clear: A small-business man goes to Bolling Field, and he has a flashlight or something that he wants to get adopted. In the past he has gone to the purchasing officer there, and he will in the future, but we want to have some one individual on the lookout to make certain that he is given proper consideration all of the way through— somebody that we could say, "if you are going to Bolling Field, see Mr. whatever his name is," who would be a sort of focal point there for him.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I think that would be helpful.

Let me ask this question regarding the 42 who are full-time employees as small-business specialists. To whom are they responsible?

91429-57-pt. 1-27

Mr. WEDDELL. In the case of those in the depots, where we do programed purchasing, each one is responsible to, and is on the staff of, the Director of Procurement and Production. In the case of the district offices where we do no purchasing, they are on the staff of the chief of the district office and responsible to him. We follow the command channel. It is the line of command, let me say, right straight through to the responsibility of our small-business specialists.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Yours differs, then, from the Navy.

Mr. WEDDELL. I do not believe so, sir.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. I thought the Navy said that they handle it or they work both ways. They had direct access to the gentlemen in charge of small-business activities and that

Mr. WEDDELL. We are speaking about responsibility, Mr. Riehlman. At Rome Air Force Depot, Rome, N. Y., the small-business specialist there is on the staff of the Director of Procurement and Production at that base, at that installation, but he is in contact with Mr. Johnson, the executive for small business at headquarters, AMC, at any time by phone and the contact is both ways. He is in contact with me, if he is having some problem that requires headquarters' attention, rather than headquarters at AMC attention.

We have the same situation there, as I understand it, that Navy has, but when it comes to who is their commanding officer, it is that particular Director of Procurement and Production. That is what I meant by responsibility.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Do you have many instances where there has been friction between the small-business representative and the procurement agent in these different areas?

Mr. WEDDELL. I would like to refer that to Mr. Johnson.

Mr. JOHNSON. Pardon me, sir, friction between the small-business specialist and whom?

Mr. RIEHLMAN. And the procurement officer.

Mr. JOHNSON. There have been disagreements. There is bound to be disagreement.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. What I am asking is whether they have been called directly to your attention, whether he has come to you for assistance and relief, or whether he has brought a problem to you for your attention.

Mr. JOHNSON. That happens occasionally. Now in a depot, that would be settled by the Director of Procurement and Productiondisagreements between the small-business specialist and the contracting officer.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Then it would never get to the top people at the top level and they would never know anything about it; would they? Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, yes.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. How could they if it is settled right there?

Mr. JOHNSON. Oh, yes, I have calls where there is some controversy; they want to know what our policy is and want guidance in settling it.

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Suppose there is a difference of opinion at Rome, as has been suggested-Rome Air Depot.

Mr. JOHNSON. Between the small-business specialist assigned there and the procurement officer?

Mr. RIEHLMAN. Yes. You say it is settled there at that level?